1949.12.78.1

Collection type

Object

Description

Pottery stud. [El.B DDF Body Arts Project 2010/2011 13/10/2010]

Geographical reference

Sudan, Republic of

Africa > Northern Africa > Sudan, Republic of

near Jebel Moya Abu Geili [Aloa]

Cultural groups

Funj

Person

Field collector Henry Solomon Wellcome

PRM source Wellcome Trustees

PRM source Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

Date / Period

Date made: 1700-1800

Date collected

1910 - 1914

Acquisition information

Donated: 1949

Materials and processes

Material Pottery

Dimensions

Length: max 13 mm

Object numbers

Accession number: 1949.12.78.1 Other numbers: 322, 640, 906

Research and responses

Abu Geili was excavated by Sir Henry Wellcome between 1910 and 1914. Wellcome died in 1937 before publishing the excavations, and consequently Frank Addison and Osbert Crawford were employed by the Wellcome Trust to complete the project. This was achieved in 1951 with the final publication of the excavations at Abu Geili [number 3 in the Wellcome Excavations in the Sudan series]. In a review of the book Peter Shinnie [1951: 161] summarised the site: "The site at Abu Geili, which stands on the east bank of the Blue Nile about three miles below the Sennar dam, was found to consist of two entirely separate elements, a Meroitic village and a cemetery of the Fung, the Muslim invaders who came down the Blue Nile in the early 16th century A.D." The excavations at the Abu Geili Fung cemetery were considered particularly important [The majority of the objects the PRM holds from Abu Geili are Fung period]. The secure dating of burials and associated grave goods [particularly the distinctive pots, such as 1949.12.47 and 1949.12.48] meant that it was possible to start placing many late medieval/early post medieval archaeological sites in central Sudan in a chronological framework. Full references: Crawford, OGS and Addison F. 1951. Abu Geili (The Wellcome Excavations in the Sudan; 3). London/Oxford: Oxford University Press (Published for the Trustees of the late Sir Henry Wellcome by the Oxford University Press). Shinnie, P.L 1950. Abu Geili (book review). Antiquity 25 (99): 161 - 163. [Copy in RDF file for 1949.12.47]. [MN 16/02/2009]

Search terms: Ornament, Pottery, Lip Ornament